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Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:

Cumbria

District:

Eden (District Authority)

Parish:

Hartley

National Grid Reference:

NY 78294 08266

Reasons for Designation

A tower keep castle is a strongly fortified residence in which the keep is the
principal defensive feature. The keep may be free-standing or surrounded by a
defensive enclosure; they are normally square in shape, although other shapes
are known. Internally they have several floors providing accommodation of
various types. If the keep has an attached enclosure this will normally be
defined by a defensive wall, frequently with an external ditch. Access into
the enclosure was provided by a bridge across the ditch, allowing entry via a
gatehouse. Additional buildings, including stabling for animals and workshops,
may be found within the enclosure. Tower keep castles were built throughout
the medieval period, from immediately after the Norman Conquest to the mid-
15th century, with a peak in the middle of the 12th century. A few were
constructed on the sites of earlier earthwork castle types but most were new
creations. They provided strongly fortified residences for the king or leading
families and occur in both urban or rural situations. Tower keep castles are
widely dispersed throughout England with a major concentration on the Welsh
border. They are rare nationally with only 104 recorded examples. Considerable
diversity of form is exhibited with no two examples being exactly alike. With
other castle types, they are major medieval monument types which, belonging to
the highest levels of society, frequently acted as major administrative
centres and formed the foci for developing settlement patterns. Castles
generally provide an emotive and evocative link to the past and can provide a
valuable educational resource, both with respect to medieval warfare and
defence, and to wider aspects of medieval society. All examples retaining
significant remains of medieval date are considered to be nationally
important.

A quadrangular castle is a strongly fortified residence built of stone, or
sometimes brick, around a square or rectangular courtyard. Two main types
of quadrangular castle have been identified, southern and northern, the
former having rounded angle towers the latter having square angle towers.
Most examples of this class of castle were built in the 14th century but
the tradition extended into the 15th century. Later examples demonstrate
an increasing emphasis on domestic comfort to the detriment of defence
and, indeed, some late examples are virtually defenceless. They provided
residences for the king or leading families and occur in both rural and
urban situations. Hartley Castle is a rare example in northern England of
a tower keep castle that was latterly modified into a quadrangular castle.
Despite having been largely demolished in the 18th century and the site
occupied by a later farmhouse and its outbuildings, upstanding fragments
of Hartley Castle still survive, including parts of the medieval curtain
wall and a part of kitchen range with a vaulted cellar. Buried remains of
the medieval tower keep castle and its later 17th century transformation
from a fortified stronghold into a substantial mansion based on a
quadrangular castle form will also survive beneath the existing later
buildings on the site. Additionally earthwork remains of the castle's
curtain wall survive well on the east and north east sides, together with
the well-preserved remains of associated garden and agricultural features.

Details

The monument includes the upstanding and buried remains of Hartley Castle
and its associated earthworks. The castle, a tower keep castle which was
later remodelled as a quadrangular castle, is located on an elevated knoll
at the southern end of Hartley village while the associated earthworks
occupy sloping ground immediately to the east and north east of the
castle.

Although the exact date of the foundation of Hartley Castle is unknown
documentary sources indicate that the castle was owned by Roger de
Clifford during the late 13th/early 14th centuries. Between 1307-15 the
castle passed to Sir Andrew de Harcla and during the following decade it
was reported to have been frequently burned by the Scots. By the mid-14th
century ownership had passed to Thomas de Musgrave who built a stone tower
or keep and was granted a licence to fortify it in 1353. Another licence
to fortify was granted in 1360. During the early 17th century Sir Richard
Musgrave enlarged and transformed the castle from a fortified residence of
the tower keep castle type into a mansion based on the quadrangular castle
type, and in about 1650 further Jacobean additions were built. In 1677 the
family moved to a new residence, Eden Hall, and shortly after Hartley
Castle was allowed to fall into disrepair. A sketch of the late 17th
century depicts a stairway giving entrance into an outer court. Crossing
the outer court entrance was gained into the inner court through an arched
porch. The inner court comprised a quadrangle with stairs leading to the
main hall on one side. A chapel, dining room and withdrawing room occupied
another side of the quadrangle, a gallery the third side and lodging rooms
the fourth side. A buttery, kitchen and cellars are also mentioned. During
the first half of the 18th century the castle was gradually demolished and
materials removed to repair Eden Hall. A new house was built on the site
of the castle during the latter part of the 18th century. Various features
are Listed Buildings Grade II; these comprise the ruins of the former
castle to the north of Hartley Castle farmhouse, the farmhouse and a wall
adjoining, and a barn to the east of the farmhouse. The castle's sandstone
curtain wall still survives with modern repairs for part of its length on
the castle's west side. Elsewhere there are traces of the buried remains
of the curtain wall surviving as grass-covered earthworks, particularly on
the castle's east side and at the north east corner where there are traces
of sandstone building foundations. Within the curtain wall, to the north
of the present farmhouse there is a mass of sandstone masonry which formed
a corner of the castle's kitchen. Within this masonry there is a doorway
with a slightly pointed arch which leads into a vaulted cellar. Traces of
another fragment of exposed stonework can be seen under the roots of a
mature tree to the west of the present access drive which leads to the
farmhouse. On the hillslope to the east of the castle there are numerous
well-preserved earthworks thought to represent the remains of garden and
agricultural activity associated with the castle. These consist of a
series of three agricultural terraces, the buried remains of two boundary
walls or banks running downslope, one of which has a return to the south
thus forming two sides of an enclosure, and at least two and possibly
three building platforms, one of which has an attached enclosure which is
terraced into the hillslope. Additionally the earthworks of a stone wall
or bank forming two sides of an enclosure survive at the monument's north
east corner.

A number of features are excluded from the scheduling. These are: Hartley
Castle farmhouse and all its associated outbuildings, a converted holiday
cottage, a shed, an open silage store, all modern walls, fences,
fenceposts, gateposts and telegraph poles, the surfaces of all access
drives and other made-up surfaces, all flowerbed retaining walls and
ornamental rockeries, all oil fuel tanks, a boiler located against a wall
on the castle's west side, and a garden swing and the bases of all
demolished sheep pens and dips. The ground beneath all these features is,
however, included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

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